


The Night at Castle Lecter

by New_day



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Creepy, Haunted Houses, M/M, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-05 00:10:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16356887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/New_day/pseuds/New_day
Summary: “You shouldn't go into the woods,” his landlady said, giving him a sinister look.“The woods are too close.”“Too close to what?” Will asked.“To the castle where he lives,” she whispered. “He's not human. He's the devil. He hunts and kills people and feasts on their corpses.”





	The Night at Castle Lecter

Will begins to wonder if he should have listened to her.

“You shouldn't go into the woods,” his landlady said, giving him a sinister look.

“The woods are too close.”

“Too close to what?” Will asked.

“To the castle where he lives,” she whispered. “He's not human. He's the devil. He hunts and kills people and feasts on their corpses.”

“I see,” Will answered uncomfortably. He hadn't been aware that the people in this part of Europe were still so superstitious.

Of course he didn't listen to her and went into the woods anyway.

But now Will he is starting to wonder if there's really something wrong with this forest.

Of course there's no devil here, no people-eating monster, but still...

Something about this forest seems strange. Sometimes Will thinks he sees something, a quick, sudden movement. Something dark, tall, moving through the thicket.

A deer or...something else?

Will can't tell because he just sees it from the corner of his eye. Whenever he tries to take a closer look, it disappears.

Feeling more and more uncomfortable, Will tries to get out of the forest, back to the small guest house where he rented a room. But he can't find the way and finally realizes that he has been walking in circles for the last hours.

Will is becoming increasingly worried and knows that he really has to get out of here before dark. He is more and more convinced that something is not right about these woods.

He wonders why he came here anyway, to rural Lithuania, a place where he has never been before and never wanted to go in the first place. After his breakdown, he had planned to visit the European capitals, as a distraction.

Instead, he ended up here.

It was as if something called him, drew him.

He had these dreams, where he heard a strange voice saying his name. 

A voice that told him to come here.

Will tries to convince himself that this is nonsense. He came here because it's a beautiful area, wild and untamed, with forests and lakes, much more beautiful than any capital could be.

***

Eventually, after roaming the woods for hours with increasing desperation, Will finds a way out. He sighs with relief when he finally leaves the forest and stares disbelievingly at the huge mansion in front of him.

It's about a mile away and more a castle than a house, surrounded by a big wrought-iron fence.

Will wonders if this is the castle his landlady was talking about, the castle where the devil lives.

The devil who hunts and kills people and feasts on their corpses.

Will shudders and shakes his head. He shouldn't even think about these silly horror stories but be glad instead that he found a way out of the woods. 

Will walks towards the fence surrounding the castle. He tries to open the gate, but it is closed by a chain. Will climbs up the fence, drops down and lands on the other side.

He takes a closer look at the castle. 

It was probably magnificent when it was built centuries ago, meant to represent wealth and style, richly decorated, with towers and oriel windows.

But today, there's not much left of that, and the castle looks abandoned and derelict.

Stones have started to crumble, windows are broken.

Will sighs. He is not particularly keen on entering this strange castle, but soon it will be completely dark, and he has no idea how to get back to the guest house.

Perhaps there's somebody here who can show him the way, a janitor or gardener who takes care of the property. However, this doesn't seem likely, given the state the house is in.

Or maybe he could spend the night at this house. Will doesn't want to, but it's probably better than staying outside. He knows that the nights can be quite cold around here.

Will approaches the front door. To his surprise, he finds it ajar, and he gives the door a push and enters the castle's hallway. Will takes a look around. The house seems to be uninhabited, it's completely dark and smells of mold and neglect. Luckily, Will brought a flashlight with him. He takes it out of his backpack and switches it on. All he can see now are spiderwebs and dust, a faded ancient tapestry on the wall and twigs and broken glass covering the floor.

“Hello?” he shouts. “Is somebody here?”

But the only answer he gets is the echo of his own words.

He opens a door and walks into the room, lightening it with his flashlight.

He looks around.

Obviously, this used to be a dining room.

There's a large wooden table in the center, surrounded by massive wooden chairs, but everything is covered in dust and spiderwebs, just like in the hall.

On the walls, there are pictures, huge portraits of people probably long deceased, in formal, ancient clothing, with outdated hairstyles or wigs.

More than ten portraits, of men, women and children.

The people in the portraits seem to stare at Will, which makes him shiver.

He takes a closer look at one of them.

It's a portrait of a man in a colorful, well-tailored suit that seems less outdated than the clothes the people in the other portraits are wearing.

He is looking at Will with his maroon eyes, his pouty lips are smirking, as if mocking Will.

He even seems to wink at Will, making him gasp in shock and almost drop his flashlight.

Will scoffs, cursing himself for his silliness. He knows that his mind is just playing tricks on him, making him see things that aren't there. No wonder, Will thinks, when you find yourself in a spooky house like this. 

Will leaves the room and walks further down the hall.

On a whim, he opens another door and finds a bedroom. To his utter surprise, the room is clean and warm. There's a bed, with freshly laundered sheets, a cupboard, a nightstand.

Will enters the room, wondering bewilderedly what this is about. He can't imagine somebody living here, in this dark, derelict place. Maybe there's really a caretaker who comes here once in a while and sometimes stays overnight?

Something is wrong here, Will thinks. I should leave. But where should I go? It's pitch-dark outside and cold. I'll never find my way home. I have to wait till morning, there's nothing I can do about it.

Suddenly, Will realizes how tired he is, after having roamed the woods for the whole day. All he wants is to rest, to sleep, just for a few hours. Tomorrow I'll leave, and I'll find a way back to the guest house, Will tells himself. Tomorrow morning.

Will takes off his shoes and lays down on the bed. He is so tired that he doesn't even undress but falls asleep immediately.

***

He wakes up in the middle of the night when he hears a soft giggle.

Startled, Will opens his eyes. A little girl is standing at his bedside, about five years old, blond and blue eyed. She smiles at Will, showing missing teeth. Strangely, he can see her clearly, even though the room is dark. It's as if she is surrounded by light or glowing from the inside.

“Hello,” she says in English.

Will just stares at her, wide-eyed, trying not to panic. What is she doing here? How can this be, a little girl, all by herself, alone in this big, abandoned house?

“Don't be afraid,” the girl continues. “There's nothing to be afraid of. You are home. You belong here, with us.”

Will starts to shake violently. He tries to get a grip, to fight back the feeling of panic, but to no avail. He knows that this is no ordinary little girl. Something is wrong about her, something about the way she looks at him, with big, knowing eyes, much too old for her age. Something about her clear, soft voice that speaks to him in unaccented English. This isn't a little girl. This is- something else.

The girl- or whatever she is- reaches out, and Will feels her small fingers on his cheek, cold as ice, caressing him softly.

And he starts to scream, he screams and screams and can't stop.

***

When Will wakes up again, it is still dark. He shivers, because the room is cold, much colder than it was when he went to bed.

What he terrible nightmare, Will is thinking. I shouldn't have decided to spend the night here, in this creepy house. And I should leave now, even if it's still dark.

Will gets up and switches on the flashlight. He puts on his shoes and leaves the room.

He walks down the hall, fearing to see the little girl again, although he knows of course that he was just dreaming and she wasn't real.

When Will has almost reached the front door and is about to leave this strange place for good, because he'd rather spend a night in the woods than another minute in here, there's a noise behind him.

Startled, Will turns around slowly.

Somebody is standing behind him, squinting when Will points the flashlight at him.

It's a man, half-naked and dirty, with a long, scruffy beard, shouting at Will in a language unknown to him.

Suddenly, the strange man lunges at Will.

Will thinks that he is probably some homeless guy who came to the castle because he was looking for a shelter. 

He tries to reason with him, hoping that the stranger is capable of understanding English.

“Look,” he says, while trying to prevent the man from attacking him without causing him harm, “I really don't want to hurt you, I'm about to leave anyway. I don't care if you stay here, I won't tell anybody. Just let me go.”

But the man won't listen, either because he doesn't understand Will's words or because he is too far gone to care. The man puts his hands around Will's throat and starts to choke him.

Panicking, Will gasps for air. He manages to push the man away, but when the stranger lunges at him again, Will fights back.

He throws the man to the ground and punches him. He chokes him, like the man choked Will before, till the stranger's eyes bulge out and he is finally losing consciousness. Will feels like in a trance, hardly aware of what he's doing.

He looks down at the man who is lying on the ground, motionless, his face beaten to a bloody pulp, and kills him by snapping his neck.

After pausing for a moment to draw a deep breath, Will slowly stands up again and takes a look at his victim.

Will knows he should be upset and shocked because he just killed a human being, but when he looks at the body, he feels nothing but satisfaction and a quiet sense of power.

Will didn't have to kill him. He used to be a policeman, he could have fought the man without ending his life. But it was as if he had to do this, as if after starting to fight back, he had no other option.

And he liked it.

He enjoyed killing this stranger, like he enjoyed killing the man who murdered all those girls, although he wouldn't admit it back then, not even to himself.

They were right, Will is thinking while still staring at the body. They were all right about him. His colleagues who said that he was weird, the psychologists who claimed he was unstable, the tabloid journalist who wrote that he was able to catch insane killers because he was insane.

And Will knows that he is much more than just weird or unstable or even insane. He is a monster. Will never wanted to believe it, but a part of him always knew. 

But now, there's no denying it anymore. And instead of being shocked, Will is feeling relieved, as if a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. He takes a deep breath again and smiles to himself.

Then suddenly, there's a light in the dark hall, slowly coming closer.

It's the little girl he saw in his dream, moving towards Will, still surrounded by light.

And there's a man walking beside her.

The man he saw on the portrait, who was wearing a colorful suit and seemed to wink at Will.

In contrast to the girl, no light surrounds him. He is encompassed by darkness, and Will can only see him because he is next to the little girl.

The man smiles at Will, and Will smiles back. He knows that this man is a monster, just like him.

“I knew,” the man says, in a soft, accented voice. “I knew you would come to me and kill him. I called you, and you came.”

He reaches out, and Will takes his hand without hesitating.

And everything changes.

Suddenly, the hall is beaming with light, and Will looks up and sees a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling, burning bright. 

There are beautiful tapestries on the walls and embroidered carpets on the floor, and the dirt, the dust and the spiderwebs are gone.

The man makes an inviting gesture, still smiling at Will and holding his hand.

“I would like to invite you for breakfast,” he says. “It will take me a while to prepare the food, so you will need to be patient. But my sister will keep you company while you are waiting for me in the dining room.”

Will looks at the little girl. He is not afraid of her anymore because he suddenly knows she was right.

He doesn't have to be afraid because he is finally home, home with his family.

“I am patient,” Will says. “And I'd love to spend time with her.”

The girl stays with Will for the rest of the night, keeping him company, while his host prepares the food.

In the morning, she disappears.

Will is not sad because he knows she will be back at night.

He has breakfast with his new companion, a simple, but delicious meal. They are smiling at each other across the table in the beautifully furnished and decorated dining room, surrounded by portraits of people who sometimes seem to wink at Will.

But this doesn't scare him anymore.

Because nothing scares him anymore.

The monsters who lurk under your bed at night, terrorize you in your dreams and sometimes whisper in your ear when you are awake- these creatures that scare you- what could scare them?

Nothing, nothing at all, except loneliness.

And Will is not alone.

***

The people in Aukštaitija, Lithuania know that you have to be careful when you walk into the woods.

If they try to warn you, you should listen to them.

Because there are monsters in the woods.

Because the woods are too close to the castle where _they_ live.

The devil and the American who went into the woods and never came back.

The devil and the fledgling he caught one night to keep him and teach him his ways.

And you should pray that you will never see them, because they will be the last thing you see.

Because they will hunt you and kill you and feast on your corpse.


End file.
